Several centuries before Dante’s birth, in the Sassanid era (perhaps around 550 AD), there had appeared the Book of Ardā Virāf (“Artāy Virāp Nāmak”), a Zoroastrian religious text written in the Persian language of that period (Pahlavi), describing the journey of a pious priest, guided by two angels, on his visit to the kingdoms of the other world: Limbo, the “four paradises” (those of the stars, the moon, the sun and the supreme Being), then finally to the nether regions. Several students have been struck [...]

Verse translation by Farideh Mahdavi-Damghani (Teheran 1963), Iranian poetess and woman of letters, tanslator of Giacomo Leopardi's Cantos as well. Edition in three volumes, published at Teheran in 2000. Various illustrations.